What are the pros and cons of vintage furniture? Are there any cons? Isn’t it all fabulous, cool, and good for the earth?
Vintage furniture is sold as this magical, noble, romantic thing. If I am being honest, the cons are not made very crystal clear to an average buyer.
In the day and age of perfectly CNC cut, robot-made, cheap furniture, it takes a different mindset to accept and love an imperfect piece of furniture that wasn’t cheap. You have to know the cons to make an informed decision. So let’s go!
Cons of Vintage Furniture
When you consider the cost of a lacquered vintage piece plus taxes and shipping, it’s quite an expensive item. In spite of its hefty price tag, it will never be perfect. Yes, that $2000+ dresser will have imperfections!
This can be quite a shock to an uninformed buyer. After all, it’s all about managing expectations.
- Vintage furniture is someone else’s used and old furniture.
- Vintage furniture has a dated aesthetic.
- Vintage furniture can’t have modern features like soft close hinges or soft close glides.
- Vintage furniture doesn’t have fully extendable drawer glides that lock in place for safety.
- Vintage furniture does not have the right proportions for modern, larger homes.
- You can easily see signs of usage and other imperfections that are present on vintage furniture.
Have I turned you off completely? I hope not. Let’s discuss the points above in detail so you can be more informed and possibly.
Vintage Furniture Is Used & Old Furniture
Let’s get real. Vintage is a fancy word for old and used. Vintage furniture refers to a piece of old furniture that someone has used for years.
The vintage furniture pieces available for purchase in our shop are, on average, around 50-60 years old. Some pieces out there are from the 1940s or even older. That’s really old, and that’s a major con of vintage furniture.
Multiple owners likely had the vintage furniture and used it extensively. I know people who can’t get over this fact, and that’s okay. Just know that when considering buying vintage.
Vintage Furniture Shows Signs Of Usage & Will Have Imperfections
It’s impossible to do away with all the signs of usage, dings & dents on a 50-60-year-old piece of furniture. You will have them, and they will be visible.
Here is a beautiful dresser we painted. We did the best we could to fill them, but if you zoom in, you will see them.
Since previous owners have used vintage furniture for decades, signs of usage are both expected and practically inevitable.
For example, dresser drawers commonly show more wear on the top drawers, and the bottom drawer shows the least. This can be a deal breaker for some.
Vintage Aesthetic Can Be Dated
Generally speaking, vintage pieces will have ornate details like turned legs and carved fixtures. They will also have visible hinges. That’s considered a charm by some, but it can be “dated” for others.
The clean, sleek look of new furniture was neither desired nor possible back in the day. People paid money for the details.
Vintage brown or yellow colors are just dated and almost impossible to incorporate into modern decor.
Vintage Furniture Doesn’t Have “Soft Close” Feature
The glides on the drawers in a vintage dresser will be wood-on-wood. When these vintage items were made, ball-bearing glides were not mainstream and, therefore, not widely used.
Due to this fact, when closing drawers on vintage pieces, there will be friction, causing some effort to pull and push in. The wood-on-wood mechanism does not allow for the drawers to close on their own effortlessly.
The same is true for the doors. Modern euro-style hinges close slowly so you are spared of the door-slamming annoyance. Vintage cabinets don’t have this, so you have to be mindful when closing doors.
Vintage Furniture Doesn’t Have Extendable & Safe Glides
Something else to consider is that the drawers in vintage furniture will not be fully extended due to the wood-on-wood glides. So if something gets pushed to the back of the drawer, it may not see the light of day for years.
Vintage drawers don’t have a stopping/locking mechanism. Pulling the drawer out too far risks the drawer falling out. This is an important consideration for nurseries and other spaces where small children are living.
Pros of Vintage Furniture
I am sure by now you are thinking, why am I even considering buying vintage? Let’s go to some big box store and buy brand new! Not so fast!
You should definitely consider vintage if some of the things below are appealing to you.
- Vintage furniture has beautiful curves and lovely details.
- Vintage furniture has unique hardware.
- Vintage furniture is cheaper and easily available—no supply chain issues.
- Vintage furniture has proportions that are perfect for smaller homes.
- Vintage furniture is American-made, handmade, with solid wood.
Vintage Furniture Has Beautiful Curves & Ornate Details
The curves, the waves, and the serpentine bow-front shapes on vintage are so unique and so so beautiful that anything new doesn’t even come close.
Vintage furniture also has beautiful ornate details that add depth and a three-dimensional element to the piece. Here is a sample of some details found in your average $200 piece of FB marketplace. It is unique and very expensive to replicate in this day and age.
Vintage Furniture Has Unique Hardware
I adore vintage hardware because it is so charming. It is usually made of pretty brass (not the 80’s tacky brass). It has beautiful details, and you will not be able to get it at The Home Depot for $2.99 apiece.
I love vintage hardware very much. Hence, I designed a line of vintage-inspired hardware for new furniture buyers.
Vintage Furniture Is Cheaper to Source & Easily Available
Even with a custom professional paint job, a vintage dresser is cheaper to source. You can buy most furniture pieces that are 50-60 years old for $200 or less on Facebook Marketplace.
Vintage furniture is (generally) up for sale because the original owner has moved into a nursing home or he/she has passed away. These vintage pieces are in great condition, and there is usually nothing wrong with them.
This makes a vintage piece of furniture very cheap to source; hence, the perceived value is much lower than the seller is charging. That makes vintage furniture an unbeatable value when it comes to cost.
You’d never have to worry about your vintage furniture getting stuck on a boat in the Pacific Ocean. The furniture has already been manufactured and is already here in America.
Perfect Proportions For Smaller Homes
If you live in an older, smaller home or in a New York City apartment, you need things that are small. Vintage furniture has smaller proportions.
If you happen to have a small room that you are decorating, vintage is a perfect choice for you.
Something else to consider – smaller older homes have small stairways and tight corners. A massive 40″ tall dresser may not make the turn on your stairs.
In such instances, vintage furniture becomes an appealing choice for customers due to its perfectly proportioned fit within the given space.
American Made & Hand Made with Solid Wood
American artisans crafted vintage furniture 50-60 years ago. In fact, they primarily produced vintage furniture in various regions of North Carolina, utilizing locally sourced wood.
China or other distant parts of the world predominantly manufacture almost everything we see around us. Machines and robots produce most of the items we buy today, and mass-manufactured furniture lacks any trace of actual solid wood.
Buying Vintage Is Environmentally Friendly
You recycle your milk jugs and soda cans and carry a bottle of water so you are not buying bottled water and polluting the earth.
You take your own bags to the grocery store, so you truly care about these things, and you are willing to spend time or give up convenience for it.
Each piece of vintage dresser that you buy is a piece that will not go into a landfill for several more years. It also means you purchased one less piece of cheaply made new furniture.
Vintage is the ultimate recycling, environmentally conscious choice. Its unique aesthetic and pretty hardware is just the cherry on top!
I have a detailed blog post about the comparison between vintage and newly made furniture here. I hope this blog post helps you understand the pros and cons of vintage furniture so you can make a well-informed decision when choosing what’s right for you.
We also have great informative FAQ videos on our YouTube channel. Consider subscribing!